Effects of suprathermal particles in space plasmas

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Authors
Pierrard, V.
Discipline
Physical sciences
Audience
Scientific
Date
2012Metadata
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Velocity distribution functions of plasma particles measured by spacecraft in the solar wind and many other space plasmas show enhanced suprathermal tails. The presence of non-thermal populations in space plasmas has important consequences concerning particle acceleration and plasma heating. These effects are well described by the kinetic approach where the suprathermal tails can be represented by different velocity distribution functions such as a sum of two Maxwellians with different temperatures or, better, with a Kappa distribution decreasing as a power law of the velocity. In the present work, we show the consequences of the velocity filtration effect. Moreover, we establish the friction and diffusion coefficients of the Coulomb collision Fokker-Planck operator for background particles characterized by a Kappa distribution.
Citation
Pierrard, V. (2012). Effects of suprathermal particles in space plasmas. , AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1436, 61-66, DOI: 10.1063/1.4723591.Identifiers
scopus: 2-s2.0-84861925159
Type
Conference
Peer-Review
No
Language
eng